Chapter 4 - THE COAT WITH THE HEAVY LINING
“Me?” I breathed, the freezing air of the walk-in cooler biting my skin. “I don’t know anything about a ledger!”
Adrian winced as I tied my apron tightly around his bleeding shoulder to staunch the flow.
“Aunt Giulia has been hiding for nine years,” Adrian explained rapidly. “Caterina’s men have been tearing the city apart looking for her. But they didn’t know she was living as Mrs. Conti. They didn’t know until yesterday.”
Ettore straightened up, his silver hair catching the harsh fluorescent light.
“What happened yesterday?” Ettore demanded.
“One of Caterina’s spies saw Nora leaving Giulia’s apartment building,” Adrian said. “They ran Nora’s face through a database. When Caterina realized her dead maid’s daughter was visiting an elderly Sicilian woman... she put the pieces together.”
I backed away, bumping into a rack of frozen meat.
“If they saw me yesterday...” I stammered, panic rising in my throat. “My brother. Leo. He lives with me.”
Adrian’s face darkened. “I sent two of my best men to your apartment an hour ago to pull your brother out. They should have him.”
My phone vibrated in my pocket.
I pulled it out with shaking hands.
Unknown Number.
I answered it, putting it on speaker so Adrian and Ettore could hear.
“Leo?” I cried.
A woman laughed softly through the speaker. Her voice was elegant, cultured, and utterly chilling.
“Hello, Nora.”
Ettore gasped. “Caterina.”
“Ettore, darling,” Caterina’s voice purred. “I see you survived dinner. Such a shame. Carlo always was a disappointment.”
“Where is my brother?!” I screamed.
“He’s sitting right next to me,” Caterina replied casually. “He has your mother’s eyes. It’s quite tragic, really.”
“If you touch him, Caterina,” Adrian snarled at the phone, “I will tear your empire apart brick by brick.”
“Oh, Adrian, my sweet boy,” Caterina sighed. “You don’t have an empire anymore. My men have already seized the ports. Your captains are either dead or working for me. You have nothing.”
The cold in the freezer felt absolute.
“What do you want?” Ettore asked, his voice dead and hollow.
“I want the ledger Giulia stole from me nine years ago,” Caterina demanded, her tone sharpening into razor blades. “It has all my offshore account numbers. Without it, I can’t access the money I bled from this family. And I know Giulia gave it to the waitress.”
“She didn’t give me anything!” I cried.
“Don’t lie to me, Nora,” Caterina hissed. “Giulia knew my men were closing in. She gave you something. A book. A file. Think carefully. You have one hour to bring it to the old shipyard in Brooklyn. If you don’t... I will send your brother back to you in pieces.”
The line went dead.
I dropped the phone. It shattered on the frozen tile floor.
“She didn’t give me a ledger!” I sobbed, clutching my hair. “She just taught me how to make pasta! She never gave me anything except groceries and...”
I stopped.
My breath plumed in the freezing air.
...when I couldn’t afford a winter coat, she quietly left one outside my door.
Adrian saw the look on my face. “What is it?”
“The coat,” I whispered, my eyes widening. “Last winter. Mrs. Conti left a heavy wool coat for me. I wore it every day. But it was always strangely heavy on the left side. I thought it was just cheap material.”
Ettore pushed off the metal shelves.
“Where is the coat now?”
“It’s in the employee locker room,” I said. “Down the hall.”
Adrian drew his gun with his good hand. “The gunfire outside stopped. Caterina’s men probably fled when the police sirens started. We move now.”
He unbolted the heavy freezer door and pushed it open.
The kitchen was empty. In the distance, police sirens wailed, growing closer.
We slipped through the kitchen and down the back hallway. I found my locker, my hands shaking so badly I could barely spin the combination dial.
I yanked the metal door open and pulled out the thick, black wool coat.
Adrian pulled a pocket knife from his trousers. He didn’t hesitate. He slashed the heavy lining on the left side.
A small, black, leather-bound book tumbled out and hit the floor with a heavy thud.
Ettore picked it up. He opened it, his eyes scanning the endless rows of account numbers and Russian contacts.
“She had it all along,” Ettore whispered. “Caterina’s entire financial network. With this, the FBI could dismantle her operations in a day. Her Russian allies will kill her themselves if this gets out.”
I didn’t care about the money. I didn’t care about the mafia politics.
“We have to give it to her,” I said, tears streaming down my face. “We have to trade it for Leo.”
Adrian looked at me, his dark eyes filled with agonizing sorrow.
“Nora, if we hand this over, she’ll kill you and your brother the second she gets it. She leaves no loose ends.”
“I don’t care!” I shouted, grabbing his good arm. “He’s my brother, Adrian! I promised my mother!”
Adrian stared at me. Then, he looked at his father.
Ettore closed the black ledger. The old Don stood taller, the fierce, terrifying aura of the Bellandi patriarch returning in full force.
“We aren’t going to hand it over,” Ettore said softly. “We are going to use it to destroy her.”
Ettore reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold pocket watch. He checked the time.
“Adrian, call the loyal men we have left. Tell them to meet us at the shipyard.”
Ettore turned to me, his eyes burning with a promise.
“Your mother died for my family, Nora. Your brother will not. I give you my word.”
We walked out the back door into the dark alley, just as the police stormed the front.
But as we climbed into Adrian’s hidden SUV, my phone rang again. It was a new number.
I answered it.
It wasn’t Caterina.
It was Mrs. Conti. Giulia.
“Nora,” the elderly woman wept through the phone. “Nora, they found me. They’re taking me to the shipyard. Don’t bring the ledger! Let me die!”
The phone was snatched away, and a man’s rough voice came through the speaker.
May you like
“One hour, little girl. Tick tock.”
TITLE: The Trap At The Brooklyn Shipyard
